Richard Ellis Talks

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. If
you're looking for some encouragement, words of hope, and maybe
a laugh or two, that's exactly what Richard wants to
share with you today. We know life can get pretty
busy and complicated, so we're truly grateful you chosen to
take a break and listen to the program.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Now.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
If you're not able to hang out with us for
the entire program, you can always pick it back up
at our website, Richard Ellis Talks dot com. In fact,
you can find all of Richard's talks right there waiting
just for you Richard Ellis Talks dot com. So with
today's talk, here's Richard Ellis.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
The title of today's message is freedom. It's not what
you think it is, and when we're doing you'll see
it's not the word you think I'm using. Walter Cronkite said,
there is no such thing as a little freedom. Either
you are all free or you are not free. Turn
to Psalm one nineteen. If you would may pick up

(01:00):
here in verse one sixty nine. Ish, Now, let me
tell you where we're going with freedom. It's two words
put together, free and dumb, and here's kind of where
I want to go. How is it possible for us
to be so free and so dumb at the same time,
he say, well, that's not really nice sing to call
people dumb. Well, as it turns out, the analogy given

(01:22):
what Christians are described as as sheep, I'm not saying
they're stupid, They're just not smart all the time. Sheep
have a way of just crowd mentality, peer pressure. If
the ram the head guy, I mean literally sheep, if
the ram sees food and does not eat the food,

(01:43):
the entire flock will not eat the food, and they'll
all starve to death, even if the food is edible.
If the ram leads them off of a cliff, they
will literally all go off the cliff. They'll follow. That's
one thing sheep have a tendency to do. The other
thing is they just wonder off, just walk off. You think, well,
how stupid is that? Because what they do know as

(02:06):
a flock is that they are safer together. Sheep understand
for warmth, for protection. If they stay together, they're going
to be safer than wandering off or doing something stupid.
But what do we do? We wander off and yet
we have been given so much freedom as Christians, and
we are so stupid at the same time. So dumb. Now,

(02:30):
let's start with the sheep side of this thing. In
Psalm one nineteen, verse one sixty nine, Let my cry
come before you, a Lord, give me understanding according to
your word. Let my supplication come before you deliver me
according to your word. My lips shall utter praise for you.
Teach me your statutes. My tongue shall speak of your

(02:50):
word for all your commandments or righteousness. And it sounds
like he knows what he's talking about so far. Let
your hand become my help, for I have chosen your precepts.
I long for your salvational Lord, and your law is
my delight. Let my soul live and it shall praise you,
and let your judgments help me. And then verse one
seventy six, I have gone astray like a lost sheep.

(03:13):
In the middle of this whole discourse here about it,
chasing after God, trusting believing him, he says, I have
gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for
I do not forget your commandments. Good Isaiah, chapter fifty three,
verse one, who has believed our report and to whom
has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he

(03:34):
shall grow up before him as a tender plant and
as a root out of dry ground. He has no
form or cominginess, and when we see him, there is
no beauty that we should desire him. And by the way,
this whole passage is prophetic in nature, and it's talking
about Jesus. You say, well, how do you know that.
We'll just listen and remember this is hundreds of years
before he showed up. He is despised and rejected by men,

(03:56):
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid,
as it were, our faces from him. He was despised,
and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for
our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement

(04:21):
for our peace was upon him, And by his stripes
we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way, and the
Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now,
what is part of what got Jesus killed, it's the strays.

(04:44):
It's us all. We like sheep, have gone astray, We've
gone our own way. Basically, say, you know what, enough
of God already. And I've said this before and I
believe this, And you say, well, it doesn't seem possible.
I believe any believer left to himself with out the
Word of God, the power of God, the spirit of
God is on a collision course with disaster. I don't

(05:06):
care how long you've been a Christian. If you cut
yourself off, if you decide I'm gonna walk away, you
have no idea how bad a place you can end
up and how fast you can end up there. And
this is such a hard thing to convince people of
People say, well, I'm a Christian, I read my Bible.
I don't make it to church. I don't need the gathering.

(05:28):
I can do it by myself. And I say, you
know what, No, you can't. You aren't intended to do
it by yourself. It's not biblical. It's just not going
to work. Now. If you are isolated in the backside
of China someplace somewhere, and you're all by yourself as
a Christian, maybe you hold on you know, till Jesus comes.
But I think even there, God finds a way to

(05:50):
send you some help, and somebody shows up to be
an encouragement. Now, I guess part of my first point
here is this, what God em killed is stupid sheep
is dumb sheep from the very beginning, the devil coming
along saying oh no, wait a minute, now, really his
God said that the conversation I had last night with

(06:11):
a friend, this buddy of his, he's a Christian, and
gotten off on this. Well, I don't really think Jesus
had to die on this new argument out there. Did
he really have to die in order to, you know,
give his blood? Couldn't he have just you know, gotten
an IV of some kind of sprinkled some blood and minna,
you know what, he had to die. When people start
chopping up the word of God and questioning, well, maybe

(06:33):
that's not true, maybe that really didn't happen, you know what,
It's either all true or it's not true. You can't
be picking and choosing these verses and saying, you know,
I'm gonna get my black highlighter out and get rid
of the stuff I don't like. Now, I think part
of where I'm coming from with this today and even
reading here in Isaiah. What gets us in trouble is

(06:54):
be very careful not to get too cocky in your
confidence in Jesus, in your faith. Humility and wisdom together
will keep you out of a lot of trouble. He said,
I'm going to roll now, baby, Look at that. I'm
reading my Bible. I'm praying, I'm leading people to Christ.
I'm giving fifteen percent. Man, I got this figured out.

(07:14):
Isaiah fifty three, verse six. Again, all we, like sheep,
have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way,
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us. All.
He was oppressed and was afflicted. Yet he opened not
his mouth. He was led as a what a lamb
to the slaughter. Very interesting to me that we are

(07:34):
compared to sheep, and it took a lamb to redeem us,
and as a sheep before it shears his silence. So
he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison
and from judgment, And who will declare his generation? For
he was cut off from the land of the living
for the transgressions of my people. He was stricken, and
they made his grave with the wicked, but with the

(07:55):
rich at his death, because he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it please
the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief.
When you make his soul an offering for sin, he
shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

(08:15):
Jeremiah fifty. Go over there. Now. The freedom part of
this thing for me and for us is this that
we just sit around and think it's all going to
be okay, like everybody's going to do the right thing.
Because this is America. I'm an American, you know, just
free and dumb as though this thing is just exists.

(08:37):
Because it exists. There are situations when things happen and
you have freedom, and the only reason you have freedom
is someone protects that freedom. You see what I'm saying.
These are luxuries that we have. But don't be dumb
enough to think that you're free just by chance. It's
not cheap. It's never free. Spiritual freedom isn't free. Jesus

(09:02):
had to die. Physical freedoms that we experience as Americans
are never free. Now read Jeremiah fifty. With me beginning
of verse one, the word the Lord spoke against Babylon,
against the land of the Chaldeans. By Jeremiah the prophet
declare among the nations, proclaim and set up a standard proclaim,
do not conceal it. Say Babylon is taken, Bell is shame,

(09:24):
Meredoch is broken in pieces, Her idols are humiliated, her
images are broken in pieces. For out of the north
the nation comes up against her, which shall make her
land desolate, and no one shall dwell therein They shall move,
They shall depart, both man and beast. And then look
at verse four. In those days and in that time,
says the Lord, the children of visual shall come, they

(09:45):
and the children of Judah, together with continual weeping. They
shall come and seek the Lord, their God. They shall
ask the way to Zion, with their faces toward it, saying, come,
and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a
perpetual covenant that will can not be forgotten. Verse six.
My people have been lost, sheep, and look at why

(10:06):
in this situation there shepherds. And this word shepherds applies
to princes or rulers, or prophets or priests, anybody in
a national authority position. Their shepherds have led them astray.
They have turned them away on the mountains. They have
gone from mountain to hill. They have forgotten their resting place.
All who found them have devoured them. And their adversary said,

(10:29):
we have not offended because they have sinned against the Lord,
the habitation of justice, the Lord, the hope of their fathers. Now,
why is it so important to pray for those in
authority over you? Because they can lead you astray. I'm
talking about anybody, anybody in authority. Go to John chapter eight,

(10:49):
and this is a conversation with Jesus. And I'm going
to jump in in John chapter eight, verse twenty, and
let's get into this freedom thing. John eight twenty these
words Jesus spoke, and the treasury as he taught in
the temple, and no one laid hands on him, for
his hour had not yet come. Then Jesus said to
them again, I am going away, and you will seek
me and will die in your sin. Where I go,

(11:11):
you cannot come. And the Jews said, will he kill
himself because he says, where I go, you cannot come.
And he said to them, you are from beneath, I
am from above. You are of this world. I am
not of this world. Therefore I said to you that
you will die in your sins, for if you do
not believe that I am He, you will die in
your sin. Please, this is just another instance. You say, Well,

(11:32):
there's many roads that lead to God. There is only
one road that leads to God, and it is Jesus himself.
He said it. I'm not just saying this or making
this up. He said it. He told him in red
ink right here in my Bible. I said to you
that you will die in your sins, for if you
do not believe that I am He, in other words, Messiah,

(11:53):
the Chosen One, the Savior, you will die in your sins.
Then they said to him, well who are you? And
Jesus said to them, just what I've been saying to
you from the beginning. I have many things to say,
and the jud's concerning you. But he who sent me
is true, and I speak to the world those things
which I heard from him. They did not understand that
he spoke to them of the Father. Then Jesus said

(12:14):
to them, when you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will know that I am He. Now what
does that mean? When you lift up the son of
Man when you put him on a cross, and that
I do nothing of myself. But as my father taught me,
I speak these things, and he who sent me is
with me. The Father has not left me alone, for
I always do those things that please him. As he

(12:35):
spoke these words, many believed in him. Then Jesus said
to those Jews who believed in him, if you abide
in my word. In other words, if you stay connected
to my word what I'm saying to you, you are
my disciples, indeed, my followers. Indeed, and you shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free. You

(12:56):
will never be free without the truth. You say, well,
I don't have time to read my Bible. I don't
have time to pray. I'm busy. Let me tell you something.
You are busy being captive by whatever's got you in
bondage to it. If you don't spend time, if we
do not spend time, If I don't spend time in
the scriptures, talking with God, walking with God, listening to God,
I will never experience the freedom that the book talks about.

(13:19):
You have to stay connected. If you abide in my word,
you are my disciples, indeed, and you shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free. They answered him,
we are Abraham's descendants and have never been in bondage
to anyone. How can you say you will be made free?
Jesus answered them, most assure that I say to you,
whoever commits sin is the slave of sin. And a

(13:39):
slave does not abide in the house forever, but a
son abides forever. Therefore, if the Son makes you free,
you shall be free. Indeed, now here's my question. Are
you free because you're an American? Because the Son made
you free? If all you can come up with, well,
I'm an American. You know, I was born in America,
and some redneck approach to Christianity. Being born in America

(14:00):
didn't make you a Christian anymore. Being born in a
garage makes you a car. If the Son tells you
you're free, you're free. And I'm not saying it doesn't
happen anymore. But one of the ways I explained to
people my idea of freedom and being free was for
whatever reason, from birth to in my twenties, and even
along the way becoming a Christian as a young child,

(14:23):
I got so wound up, caught up in prisoned in
whatever it was, didn't understand the truth, didn't know the truth,
didn't know God loved me, and basically was in prison
for all intents and purposes. You say, well, how can
you be in prison. You're not in prison. You can
be in prison and be walking around as a free
man supposedly, and be in bondage to all kind of stuff.

(14:44):
And the guy that God sent along, the man that
he sent in my life, Claude Townsend, as it turns out,
basically I understood later Claude would come visit me in
my cell and we'd sit down and talk, and he
had gotten permission from the warden and the guards to
come in my cell, and he would sit with me
and my cell and he would talk to me about
these things and how much God loved me, and that

(15:05):
Jesus had died for me, all these things. I knew
in my head that if I died, I'd probably end
up in heaven, but I had no way of living
my life as a free man, as a Christian. And
it almost turned out that he would come in my cell,
and this is how i'd God explained the way I
understood it. Finally, he would kind of come in like
a piece of paper and say, look, I have a

(15:26):
signed document here from the governor, from the president, whatever
it takes for you to believe this, saying you have
been pardoned. You can walk out, you can leave this place.
You are a free man. And I'd go, are you
for real? That can't be true. I know what I did.
I'm guilty. He said, Yah, I understand you're guilty, but
this is what he says. This he has the authority

(15:48):
to forgive you. I can show all the guards in
the ward and all the way out this piece of
paper and you can walk. Are you interested in that? Absolutely?
I think, And I'd get my courage up and believe
it for a little bit, and I'd make it to
the first set of gates, and the demonic guards, you know,
kind of that were keeping me locked up. I'd show
my little piece of paper and they'd scare me and
I'd run back to my cell. And it took more

(16:10):
time than I cared to admit, but one day I
finally made it to the gate, to the main gate.
He said, what are you talking about. I'm talking about
being locked up in your own head, in your own heart,
in your own body, walking around free but completely bound up.
I made it to the front gate, and they're all,
you know, screaming at me and hissing at me, trying

(16:31):
to get me to stay in my cell, because that's
their job, is to keep me imprisoned. And I stepped
outside the front gates for the first time and was free.
I actually believed it. And then what happened is I
knew nothing about being free. All I had known for
those twenty something years was the demonic Guard basically told

(16:53):
me what to do, when to do it. They had
certain pleasures they'd allow. You could have whatever you want
to do, whatever you want to do. You just could
never leave. Now I'm trying in a crazy way, I guess,
explain to you. Freedom is not free and dumb. It's understanding,
asking God for some wisdom, some real understanding of what

(17:16):
it means when he says this, if you abide in
my word, stick with my word, then you're my disciples. Indeed,
you say you're a following of me. You're gonna stick
to what I say and you'll know the truth and
what will happen. The truth will make you free. What
made me free finally, as a twenty something year old guy,
the truth, The truth was that God did love me,

(17:37):
that Jesus had died on a cross and shed his
blood from my sin, that I was forgiven. Whether I
understood it completely comprehended or not, it was just a fact,
whether you like it or not. Jesus died for your sins,
and his blood can wash away whatever you've done. You say, well,
you don't know what I've done. You know what I

(17:58):
know somebody who does know every thing you've done, and
his blood can wash away all of that. You say, well,
I don't believe that. That's your problem. Just because you
say you don't believe the truth doesn't make the truth
not the truth anymore. Verse thirty eight. Again, Therefore, if
the sun makes you free, you shall be free. Indeed.

(18:19):
And I kind of see my ministry as a prison
ministry of sorts. And I meet people and I go, wow,
I understand. You got a nice cell here, And some
people have big cells, big houses, pools, all kinds of stuff,
luxurious cells, but they're still locked up. And some people

(18:40):
got a little spot under a bridge and that's their cell.
And some people got a little corner office and that's
their cell. And you start explaining to him, look, you
don't have this stuff. This stuff's got you. You're not
doing this stuff. This stuff's doing you. And is this
really how you want to live and how you want
to die? And beginning to pace slowly to spend some

(19:02):
truth and let them see there is a way out.
There is freedom, real freedom. Second Corinthians, Chapter three. Second Corinthians,
Chapter three. Let's just jump in verse seventeen. Now, the
Lord is the Spirit, and where the spirit of the
Lord is, there is liberty. Okay, So what does that mean?

(19:22):
The Lord is the spirit. Where the spirit of the
Lord is, there is liberty. If you become a Christian,
what happens The Holy Spirit of God comes to live
in you. Now this is a very bizarre concept. I
am really sometimes more comfortable with having God around me,
but when I start trying to get my head around
having Him in me, I am not comfortable because I

(19:44):
know what goes on inside my head, inside my body.
What's up with me? A lot of the time I
don't like sharing space with a holy God because my
flesh and his spirit start button heads, and I I
am a dumb sheep some of the time. That's why

(20:05):
it is so nice to have a concept of church
being a place where God is, and we go visit him,
and then we go live like hell and come back
and visit him. That's brilliant. Let's build him a house
and he can stay there and we'll put air and heat,
and he can roam around during the week. Just leave

(20:25):
us alone, and if we get screwed up and in trouble,
we will come visit you and say, you know, please
forgive me, say some words over me, and make it
all go away. And then I'm gonna go back and
do exactly what I did, because I am a dumb
sheep and I love my freedom. The verse year says,
now the Lord is the spirit, and where the spirit

(20:46):
of the Lord is, there is liberty. Here's the definition
from Strong's concordance. True liberty is living as we should,
not as we please. Liberty. Freedom is not well, I
can do whatever I want to do. Paul said, all
things are lawful, but in all things are not expedient.
You said, I'm a Christian. I just live like I

(21:06):
want her and do what I want to do. One
of the toughest things for me when I got out
of prison, so to speak, God outside that gate. It
started to dawn on me. I'm free. I can go
do whatever I want to do. Now I understood I
had grace. And the reason the re vers in the
Bible is say shall we send the more that grace
may abound? He said, no, God forbid. How are we
who are dead to sind live any longer in it?
But for a while new Christians just kind of like

(21:29):
bask in this freedom, this grace, and just kind of
go crazy sometimes because they are just gobbling up grace.
He said, that's not right. Well, I know it's not right.
But when you finally get free, you can abuse grace
and it's abusable. And then you start going, whoa, This
probably isn't the deal, is it, Because there's consequence that
comes with the abuse. He'll still forgive you. The world's

(21:51):
way does not work, And the tragedy is it takes
us about eighty years to figure that out, and about
the last few minutes you go, oh, it doesn't work,
and then boom you're dead and you're out of here.
You're like, well, now what do I do? Galatians Chapter five,
Verse one, Look at this, he says, stand fast Therefore
in the liberty same word. I just read to you

(22:11):
the definition four by which Christ has made us free,
and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
And sometimes the biggest yoke of free dumb people are
religious people saying, well, yes, Jesus, but you got to
do this too. There is no do this too, and
you've got to take a stand. If it's not in

(22:32):
the scripture, don't go chasing it. Stand fast therefore in
the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and
do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
And in this case, indeed, I, Paul say to you
that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.
And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised
that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.

(22:52):
You have become estranged from Christ. You who attempt to
be justified by law, you have fallen from grace. For we,
through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith or in Christ Jesus. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision
avails anything but faith working through love.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
We'll get back to Richard in a moment to close
out today's talk, but first I want to share something
about our program. Our mission is actually very simple to
take the planet. So it's our prayer that these daily
talks from Richard aren't something you only hear and enjoy,
but that they inspire you to share with others. Together,
we can do this. The message of the Gospel is

(23:31):
something everyone needs to hear, and that's why it's such
a priority to us. So join us in this important mission.
Call us at eight five five six Richard to say
you're in, or you can get on board with us
through our website Richard Ellistalks dot com. Well, here's Richard
with some closing thoughts for us.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
One more one Peter Chapter two, First Peter Chapter two,
verse twenty one. For this, you were called because Christ
also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you
should follow his steps. Who committed no sin, nor was
deceit found in his mouth, who when he was reviled,
did not revile in return. Remember Isaiah fifty three. When

(24:12):
he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to
him who judges righteously, who himself bore our sins in
his own body on the tree, that we, having died
to sins, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you
were healed for you were like sheep going astray, but

(24:35):
have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.
I need a shepherd, I need an overseer. I need help.
And if I take advantage and abuse my freedom and
go out there by myself and just follow the herd,
no matter what crazy stuff they're doing, then my freedom

(24:58):
is just freeddomb. It turns out to be very expensive.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
Thanks for tuning in today to Richard Ellis Talks. With
the busy schedule everyone has these days, it means the
world to us that you would take this time to listen.
Let us know how it has touched your heart by
calling us at eight five five six Richard. You can
also connect with us at our website Richard Ellistalks dot com.
One last thing, Richard Ellis Talks is a daily program

(25:25):
but also has daily costs and being a listener supported
program means we rely on the financial partnership of our listeners,
which means you maybe you've given to this ministry before
or have waited for the right time. Well, we believe
that these talks with Richard are making a difference in
your life. So this is how you can make a
difference to ours. You can contribute by giving us a
call at eight five fives six Richard or at our

(25:46):
website Richard ellistalks dot com. Thank you for your very
generous gifts. It truly means so much to us. God
bless and thanks for listening to Richard Ellis Talks. Yeah